Native Americans of North America

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Arts and Crafts

Many Great Basin Indians, like peoples in the California culture area, used baskets as both carrying and cooking containers, although their baskets were typically less sophisticated. To traverse large streams, they built bulrush floats to carry their belongings. They wove nets for hunting small game from plant materials, and they made bows and arrows and clubs. Long, hooked sticks were fashioned for pulling small animals from burrows. Some groups made duck decoys using tule reeds covered with duck skins. In Ute society, arrow and spearhead makers held a special place of honor.

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Post-Contact History

Much of the Great Basin is landlocked desert country, and Native Americans living there avoided contact with non-Indians until later than tribes to their west and south. A Spanish expedition ventured into what is now central Utah in 1776 and 1777. By then, some Ute bands had traded with Pueblo Indians to the south for horses. They adopted a lifestyle similar to tribes east of the Rocky Mountains, traveling onto the Great Plains as horse-mounted hunters. Some Shoshone bands also took to the plains on horseback.

For most Great Basin peoples, the first contacts with outsiders that significantly altered traditional ways of life occurred in the 1840s. At that time, many Euro-American migrants began traveling through the Great Basin on their way to California. Other newcomers sought land in the western interior for homes, including the Mormons who settled near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The Colorado gold rush that began in 1858 brought more settlers to the region. A number of wars ensued in the 1860s and 1870s, in which indigenous peoples unsuccessfully fought non-Indians in an effort to retain traditional lands and ways of life. In the following decades, most Great Basin peoples were settled on reservations.

Today, the Ute retain the largest share of Native American lands in the Great Basin. They are followed by the Paiute, who hold scattered parcels, then the Shoshone, Bannock, and Washoe. Oil, gas, and mineral leases provide some income for present-day Great Basin peoples. Other economically important activities include farming and raising livestock, casino gaming, and the sale of traditional arts and crafts.

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Northwest Coast

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Land and Habitat

The Northwest Coast culture area encompasses more than 3,200 km (2,000 mi) of the Pacific coast, from the panhandle of present-day southern Alaska to northern California. The width of this narrow coastal region varies from about 16 km (10 mi) to 240 km (150 mi). It is cool, damp, thickly forested, and cut by many rivers. Vancouver Island, the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Alexander Archipelago, and other smaller islands off the Northwest Pacific coast are part of the culture area.

Mountains run north-south along the eastern limits of the Northwest Coast. These include the Coast Ranges in Canada and the Cascade Range in the United States. In some areas the mountains extend to the ocean, forming rocky cliffs. In other regions the uplands drop dramatically to inlets and rocky beaches. The region is characterized by mild wet winters and cool summers. Evergreen forests thrive where there is soil enough to support them, and huge trees form a dense canopy that blocks out much sunlight. The floor of the great Northwest Coast forests is dark, damp, and covered with ferns and mosses. Springs and streams from mountain glaciers feed numerous rivers, which run to the ocean. The forests are home to abundant flora and fauna, and the rivers and sea teem with aquatic life.

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Peoples and Languages

Northwest Coast peoples spoke a variety of languages. The Haida and Tlingit spoke distinct dialects thought to be related to the Athapaskan language family. Athapaskan peoples who settled in the region included the Chastacosta, Chetco, Clatskanie, and a number of other tribes. Languages based on the Penutian language stock were spoken by such tribes as the Alsea, Chinook, Coos, Kalapuya, Siuslaw, Takelma, and Tsimshian. Other languages in the region included those of the Salishan family, spoken by the Coast Salish and other tribes; the Wakashan family, spoken by the Haisla, Heiltsuk, Kwakiutl, Makah, and Nootka; and the Chimakuan family, spoken by the Chimakum and Quileute.

These various peoples settled throughout the Northwest Coast region. For the most part, they did not cluster geographically according to language. Culturally, Northwest Coast peoples can be divided into three groups: those of the colder northern area, including the Queen Charlotte Islands of western British Columbia; those of the central region, in the vicinity of Vancouver Island and the mouth of the Columbia River; and those of the warmer southern region, who shared some cultural traits with peoples of the California culture area.

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Early Peoples

Evidence for the first settlement of the Northwest Coast is scarce, with the earliest documented sites dating to about 10,000 years ago. Salmon has been an important staple for Northwest peoples for at least 7,000 years, and by about 5,000 years ago indigenous peoples began to exploit shellfish resources. After that time, Northwest Coast Indians gradually learned to use marine and land resources more efficiently, and complex societies arose. Indigenous peoples built numerous settlements, typically right at the ocean's edge on narrow rocky beaches. The Northwest Coast became one of the most densely populated areas in all of North America. Trading along the coast and inland up rivers was widespread, and woodcarving and other crafts attained great sophistication and artistry.